The Cooking Chronicles: Something Fishy

While fresh fish is great, because we tend to do most of our grocery shopping on the weekend, flash-frozen fish is the better alternative for us because we can keep it in the freezer until we are ready to use it. In our case with the vacuum-sealed packages from Ocean Odyssey, the fish is already filleted, making it easy to thaw the night before and incorporate it into a weeknight supper. And though it was super-convenient to have Pat and her stall at the City Market over the summer, it’s just as easy to stop by her shop (10027 167 Street, 780-930-1901) year-round to stock up for a few weeks.

We used Ocean Odyssey filets for the following two recipes – they’re one-pot or one-pan deals!

Garlic & Tomato Fish Stew

Donna Hay’s No Time to Cook recipe for a garlic and tomato fish stew was fast and easy, and made for a tasty weeknight supper. We used sole filets, which meant flakier, smaller pieces of fish were in the cards instead of large chunks. I also liked the inclusion of potato.We served the dish with some toasted ciabatta buns from Sobeys, to be dipped into the broth of white wine, stock and tomato juice.

Fish stew

It’s something we will definitely make again!

Pan-cooked Grated Celeriac and Crunchy Fish

We were definitely in a rush the night of the final mayoral forum, but handily, Mark Bittman’s recipe for pan-cooked grated vegetables and crunchy fish did not take long. While Mack took care of grating the Greens, Eggs and Ham celeriac, I sautéed some onions and garlic with curry powder, then added the root vegetable to be cooked until browned. Then in the same pan, we seared up some cod filets that had been dredged in a mixture of corn meal and flour.

Crunchy cod over pan-cooked grated celeriac

This wasn’t my favourite way to eat celeriac (I much prefer the pureed soup), as the cooking time didn’t really allow the celery root to soften much at all – grated potato would have fared better. The fish, on the other hand, was delicious – crispy on the outside and flaky on the inside, it was a healthier alternative to the deep-fried filets it reminded me of.